Communicating Issues

It's often said there are two types of CEOs: those that want to know what's going on and those that don't. Executives that don't want to hear anything negative can inadvertently create cultures that encourage their people to "soft peddle" the issues, to keep managers somewhat in the dark.

When I worked at HP for example, a colleague told me early on, "HP likes happy, smiley people. The manager's message around here is "Get it done - and don't bring me any issues."

What I liked about this management style was its authentic empowerment. While many companies say they empower their people, it's often lip service. But at HP, it was real. The culture set the tone that people were paid to apply their judgment and expertise to get things done.

Running back to your manager get get approval on every little thing was not indicative of a good employee, but rather an employee not qualified to do the job. And if you needed help managing an issue, your colleagues were more than happy to help. There was a strong sense of collaboration and teamwork at HP.

The  downside of this type of culture might explain how things like scandals get out of control in the first place.

It's impossible to not have issues. Granted, the more clear you are about your goals and your values for operating, the fewer you will have.

Arming employees with knowledge about who you are, what you do, and how you do it, gives them a built-in decision making model. If you've communicated your end game clearly and you've hired smart, capable people to execute, you're off to a great start.

But even when management does its job well and hires the right people, issues arise. Some call them exceptions. And when issues do come up, they need a framework for communication and management resolution that is objective and fair.

It's why the "Situation, Impact, Resolution" model, also known as SIR - works so well in communicating and understanding the impact of an issue. 

The SIR model respects empowerment while providing a way to communicate an issue without looking weak or unqualified to do a job.  With this SIR model, an employee communications the situation, the impact it's having on customers, and his or her recommendation for resolution.

In 80 percent of the cases, employee recommendations are granted management approval for execution and the crisis is avoided. About 20 percent result in a manager's decision to go another way. The result, assuming good managers are in place, helps employees learn. 

The model also helps drive emotion out of the decision-making process. By communicating in objective terms how a situation is impacting customers in a negative way, coupled with a recommendation to reverse the impact, an employee can minimize the politics of the situation and remove the fear of communicating an issue.

In the absence of such models, a culture of "soft peddling the issues" forms.  Negative impacts of situations become much more difficult to correct, or worse, they become addressable at points too late to fix.

If you lack an objective framework for communicating and managing the negative impact of issues, give the SIR model a try.  By using this simple model, you'll articulate how you plan to tackle the negative impact of a situation with focus and efficiency.